Velox Clearing, a California headquartered financial service provider recently revealed the appointment of a new head of the firm. As per the statement released by the firm, it has onboarded Michael Higgins to serve as its new Chief Executive Officer. The incoming executive is a veteran with nearly three decades of experience serving in the financial services industry and is an expert in risk oversight and mitigation, project management and brokerage operations.
The statement revealed that Mr. Higgins will be serving as Chief Executive Officer of its newly launched prime brokerage business division albeit information in his LinkedIn account stating that he is serving as the head of the clearing firm. Aside from his role with Velox Clearing, he is also serving as a consultant at MVH – a role he has held for one year now.
Prior to taking up his current role at Velox Clearing, he served in multiple roles for nearly seven years at LPL financial – one of the leading players in the US retail financial advisory market also known as one of the largest independent broker-dealers in the USA. He began his term at the firm as a Senior Executive in June of 2013 post which he took on the role of Senior Vice President for its Enterprise Risk Management unit.
At the time of resignation from the firm, he served in the role of Head of Operations. Before LPL Financial, he served as Executive Vice President at H.B. Capital LLC for four years. He played a major role in expanding the firm’s global footprint by establish trading companies in China, India, Russia, Hong Kong, Canada, Japan, South America, and Europe which helped the firm see an increase by 2.5 Million USD in two years and reduced the overall expenses of the firm by 41% by outsourcing its IT & Recruitment functions.
Some of his other notable roles include – COO for Broker-Dealer and Defined Contributions Unit at AXA Advisors, President at BNY Investment Services, Vice President for Pershing & DLJ Direct and Vice President at Charles Schwab and CO.
Commenting on his new role at the firm, Mr. Higgins said, “The clearing sector is ripe for innovation, and I’m thrilled to be joining an outstanding team that is at the forefront of this movement. My industry experience to date has instilled a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities our clients face, and I look forward to helping Velox and its’ clients successfully navigate a rapidly evolving landscape to achieve growth”.
The firm hopes to achieve success in prime brokerage division as an increase in banking regulations which mandates increased minimum levels of capital and increases in reporting expenses has resulted in a lot of competitors leaving the sector. The firm has also onboarded several staffs from different locations in the recent past to ensure smooth and successful operations for its product offerings which combine custody and clearing services.
